Darkest Nightmare Relived
by Alma
Summary: Sephiroth returns to torment Cloud in his saddest hour after our heroes die from Meteor's impact. 3rd person view, Cloud's POV and Sephiroth's POV.


Chapter 1:  
  
The wreck from the airship lay around Cloud in ruins. His tattered, bloody body was lying on the snow near the north crater. He opened one eye; his other was swollen and purple. Where were the others? His vision blurred and all he could see was white around him. His blonde spiky hair was covered with frost and his mighty buster sword was lost in the flood of snow. The impact of Meteor had flung their ship into the snowy continent. Slowly, he sat up, looking around. Where is everyone else? Then he saw her, lying face down in the snow. Tifa. He rushed over to her, lifting her body up, close to his. Blood was soaking through her left side and onto the pure snow, and blood trickled down from her mouth. She was cold and stiff, her eyes frozen shut, her lips a pale blue.   
  
He held her close and knew that she was dead. "No...Tifa..." He breathed her name into the cold air. He looked now at her body, but it no longer seemed like Tifa, her soul had long left this shell of a body and now it was empty and hollow. He lay in the snow for a few moments, the silence broken only by the gentle sound of snowflakes landing on the swollen ground from the crash. He let a few tears slide their way down his cheeks before falling to the frozen ground. He suddenly felt empty inside. No, this can't be real, he thought. She was gone now. Tifa was gone, and the others?   
  
He saw Cait Sith's toy body lying on the ground and for a moment he wondered about Reeve. He couldn't see anyone else, but he knew they were all dead too. Why had he survived? He stood up, staring around him at the smoldering airship. Cid, Barret, Yuffie, Vincent, RedXIII, where was everyone? Was he the only one left? Were all of his friends dead? He forced his eyes away from Tifa's lifeless corpse and tried to steady himself against the cracked hull of the ship.   
  
He felt sick and the world began to sway. He glanced into the broken airship and looked away as he saw Cid's frozen face, eyes open, staring up at him from the cockpit. He was lying limp on the floor, his face frozen in a scream, his eyes staring at Cloud. Cloud felt even more sick and bent over to throw up, coughing harshly. He could feel the death around him and he wanted to leave. Staggering away from the site, on his sprained ankle, he walked into the snowy fields, leaving behind his deceased companions.  
  
  
Chapter 2:  
  
"Mother, what have I done?" Sephiroth's voice sounded tiny and far away. The LifeStream bubbled and boiled around him, encasing his body in a light green glow. "Mother!" he called again. His yell was answered only by the calmly flowing LifeStream echoing the Planet's screams. His silver long hair floated lifelessly around his naked body, scarred from the deliverance of the Omnislash by Cloud Strife.  
  
He was far beneath the Planet's surface inside of the LifeStream that had swallowed him up after his embarrassing defeat by that boy.  
  
"Mother!" he cried out again. "You and I could have ruled the world. We could have gone to the Promised Land together, Mother!" the LifeStream only echoed back his own cries and continued encircling his long silver hair around him like a silver stream of water.   
  
"But now look what has become of me! I beg of you, Mother! Help me! We must get revenge...I'm so scared...I don't want to die yet...I CAN'T die yet!" Sephiroth yelled, denying his own death. He was completely alone in a vast pool of the mysterious LifeStream, humiliating scars covered his previously perfect body and the blood felt fresh on his forehead. What had become of the man who had caused all this, Cloud Strife?  
  
"I promise you, Mother, we shall get revenge. He took it all away from us...we could have ruled everything together!" his anger rippled through the green waters.   
  
Finally, a voice whispered back to him, lovingly, motherly, "Sephiroth, my dear, your death shall be avenged. Your JENOVA is strong and you are my angel of death, ...sweet angel."   
  
The LifeStream stroked with anger and hatred, but Sephiroth felt no fear and a smile slowly spread across his lips. "Mother..."  
  
"Your time of peaceful slumber is not now..." the Jenova spoke into Sephiroth's mind. "Go...kill the man who caused this pain!" She ordered him.   
  
"Yes, mother," a cruel twisted smile surfaced on his face once more as he realized he could still win, it wasn't over...he would make sure of it.   
  
The LifeStream began to churn and boil like mad as it began to resurface to the Planet's Mideel, a place known to spout the LifeStream. Sephiroth's body was taken slowly to the surface, scarred, but still intact. It gushed up in Mideel and washed Sephiroth to the grass. He sat up, naked and cold, and laughed.  
  
"Thank you mother..." he whispered bitterly, his hair glistening in the pure sunlight.  
  
"Your JENOVA is strong, Sephiroth. Avenge yourself!" She demanded as the LifeStream receded back into the ground, leaving a small green pool behind.  
  
Sephiroth nodded and rose to his feet.  
  
  
Chapter 3:  
  
Cloud's feet had gone completely numb in the snow as he walked on, no longer caring about his personal health. He had several coughing fits while he walked and his sword had been left behind in the snow, forgotten. He couldn't understand why he had survived the crash and yet everyone else had died. Was he really the 'lucky one' if all of his friends were dead? The snow kept falling around him silently as he trudged on through the blizzard. His blonde hair was covered with snow and his lips were purple and hands numb. He no longer cared though. He was thinking about them too much. Where was he to go? How had he survived? All of his memories were a blur.   
  
Each breath he took welcomed cold air into his lungs and he began to feel like he was floating through the snowfields since he could no longer feel the soft snow beneath him. His vision dimmed, and the frostbitten air swept across his face for the last time as he fell backward into the snow, praying for death. He let his breathing slow gradually and his eyelids eased themselves closed.  
  
Suddenly, it felt very warm all around him and something soft and fuzzy touched his face. Fluttering his eyes open, Cloud looked up at the ceiling of the tent. The warmth was coming from a fire next to him and a fuzzy blanket was gently touching his face.  
  
"What..." the first words he had spoken in a long time in a strain to recognize his surroundings.   
  
"Hey, boy! Glad to see you're awake. If we hadn't found you when we did, you'd have been a goner!" a cheerful young man stood above Cloud. "How did you manage to get yourself out in the middle of the freezin' snowfields, son?" There was a pause as the man suddenly made eye contact with Cloud, "Geez! You're eyes are... all glowing and weird! Are you okay?"  
  
Cloud looked confused and then remembered Tifa and Cid and everyone who was dead...Tifa... He tried to speak, but he bit back his lip, a sudden sadness springing to his eyes. After the choking feeling had passed, he tried to talk, "I...was in a crash...where am I?" he blinked trying to rid himself of the tears threatening to pour down his face as he remembered the crash. He wouldn't cry now. He refused.  
  
"Son, this is the Bone Village south of the Snow Mountains. We were excavating a part of the mountain when we received a call from Icicle Inn in the town up there that a young man had been found, practically frozen in the fields. They rushed you here to get out of the cold. Haven't woken up until just now, so we thought maybe we was gonna lose you!" the young man said sincerely.  
  
Cloud suddenly sat up, remembering something, "Midgar! What happened to Midgar?!" he shouted, tossing the blankets aside.  
  
"Midgar? Sorry, son, if you had family there 'cause the city's been destroyed," he gave Cloud a really sorry look.   
  
"And Kalm? Was it destroyed too??" Cloud demanded, trying to stand on his sprained ankle.   
  
"I'm sorry, kid, really I am. Kalm was destroyed too...the entire half of that continent has been decimated..." the man really did look sorry once more.   
  
Cloud shook his head, "No...Marlene..." He lay back down on the bed and covered his face with his hands, not wanted the other man to see his pain. "Tifa...It's not fair." He sobbed slightly.   
  
The young man threw another log onto the fire as Cloud stood and went to leave. "Hey, son! Where are you goin'? You've got a badly swollen ankle and you practically almost died yesterday when we found ya!" he yelled to Cloud as he hobbled out the door.   
  
The Bone Village was teaming with excavators digging here and there. The famous skeleton of a large animal still lay where it had been when Cloud had last visited this town- before Aeris had...  
  
"Dammit!" Cloud yelled, attracting the attention of several diggers who halted their work to stare at the spikey-haired guy. "I need to get to the main continent!" he yelled to the crowd. "I need a boat, or an airship!"  
  
"I have an airship you can use if you need it, but it'll cost you..." a man commented.   
  
"Damn...I don't have any money or materia to offer..." Cloud muttered. "I need to get to the main continent! Please let me ride your airship! Mine was destroyed..." he cast a glance downward and suppressed the sorrow dwelling within.   
  
"The main continent's been destroyed," the man replied.   
  
"I need to get there! Please take me there now!!!" Cloud demanded, his voice growling with anxiety.   
  
"Okay, okay...it's parked out front..." the man sighed and yelled to the others he would be back soon. Cloud followed him out to the crummy airship, longing to see the main continent and the destruction Meteor caused.  
  
  
Chapter 4:  
  
The people of Mideel were startled and amused at the appearance of this strange naked man appearing from the LifeStream. Sephiroth had been given food and clothing shortly after his rebirth to the Planet by the townspeople living in the torn town of Mideel.   
  
"How can I get to Midgar?" He asked one woman, who always seemed to have a chocobo following her around.   
  
"Sir, Midgar has been completely destroyed by the Meteor, along with Kalm...I'm sorry if you had friends or family there," she looked down at the floor.  
  
"Really? Destroyed by Meteor!" Sephiroth couldn't help but smile. "Do you know a man named Cloud Strife?" he questioned her.   
  
"I know that name!" a nearby man called over to him. "He was a patient of mine back when we had the clinic up before LifeStream ruined it. I was his doctor there. Why?"  
  
"Cloud was here before? Why?" Sephiroth had a puzzled look on his face.   
  
"He was treated for severe Mako poisoning. He was comatose for a while even, why?" the doctor responded.   
  
"Do you know what happened to him after words? Where is he now?" Sephiroth moved closer to the doctor.   
  
"I...I don't know. He could be anywhere, I suppose," the doc answered.   
  
Sephiroth smiled again and thought of where Cloud could possibly be. In the Northern Continent after their battle? Nah, he'd probably have been in Midgar trying to help the others escape in time...he couldn't be dead...no, definitely not...   
  
"I'm sure I can find my puppet again!" he mumbled with a cheerful laugh. "I want to see the wreckage of Midgar for myself and perhaps I'll meet him there...maybe I'll find his dead body in the ruins! Something is calling me there..." he muttered to himself and laughed again turning to leave.  
  
"If you're planning on going anywhere, I suggest taking this Chocobo," an older man said to Sephiroth. "It will return here once you dismount it, and we need to use it because all transportation from here to anywhere has been temporarily cut off while we deal with this meddlesome LifeStream. Spouted right in the middle of our town!" the old man held out the reigns of a Black Chocobo to Sephiroth.   
  
"Thank you. Your town has been more than kind to me," Sephiroth remarked, curling his lips into a sinister smile, grasping the reigns tightly.   
  
  
Chapter 5:  
  
((View Change-Cloud: First Person))  
  
The airship got me there faster than I had expected, but what greeted my eyes was a terribly sight. Midgar had been demolished entirely into a crater in the Planet. Kalm was barely standing, obviously caught from the blast of Meteor...  
  
"Let me down here," I told the pilot.   
  
He lowered the aircraft and I hopped out, wincing on my ankle. "Thanks!" I called back to the man as he piloted the aircraft away.   
  
I turned and looked at the ruins, memories flooding back to me. ShinRa must be dead too because President Rufus was probably in Midgar at the time...  
  
As I neared the ruins, I felt a cold chill sweep through my bones. The splendor of the city was crushed and splintered into a thousand pieces. A huge ShinRa sign lay destroyed from its fall off the top of the ShinRa building. I kicked it aside and ventured into the debris, a bit unwilling, but something was forcing me to go. All around me was death and decay. Bodies lay charred or crushed under fallen structures.   
  
Aeris's church lay in absolute ruins- no hope of reconstruction. But, I noticed the flowers still bloomed in the middle as brightly as they did before as if nothing else in the world matters and as if they are the most beautiful flowers proudly displaying their brilliant petals. A sweet scent waved through the air and I remembered the first time I had met Aeris, when I fell in right on top of this very flowerbed.  
  
Again, a deep sadness awakened within me and I squeezed my eyes shut to keep the tears from falling. I refused to cry and continued past the church ruins and the flowerbed. Soon, I saw the collapsed entrance to Sector 7... Tifa's bar used to be here...  
  
This sorrow and death surrounding me ...the world paled in color and began spinning gray and black in my line of vision. I had to get out of here. Get out of here now! I didn't bother venturing on through the depressing city, everything reminded me of my lost friends and Tifa...oh gods...   
  
A bright flash of white light nearly blinded me as a horrible scene replayed in my mind... this one was a bit fuzzy and unclear... it was Tifa's broken body lying in my hands, her face perfectly sleeping, her body at rest, blood dried on her mouth and lips... Two days ago she was alive and well, but now she was decaying somewhere in the Northern Snowfields... I could see her dying in slow motion almost at the time of the crash...waiting to me to save her. I wish I could have. Hopefully, her death had been quick and painless, was her last thoughts...of me?   
  
The body in my hands was cold and empty, and just as the tears began welling in my eyes again, the image disappeared and I found myself standing before the fallen gate to Sector 7. I couldn't take this anymore. I had to get out of here...  
  
I ran back through Sector 6 and 5, past Aeris's crumbled church, past the beautifully radiant flowers, out into the open fields surrounding the crater of the city I once knew.  
  
Kalm...! And what happened to Kalm? ... Was Marlene dead? Barrett's little girl... From far away, the town of Kalm didn't even appear to be standing...but you never know. I turned my back on Midgar and never looked back, the gloomy feeling of death loomed around the tattered city, like a nightmarish demon forever haunting my heart. I limped across the fields to the nearby deceased town of Kalm...  
  
All was in ruins- not a single building stood, not a single soul alive. Not ever a breeze dared to creep through the ghost town. My footsteps echoed against the pavement and bodies lay bloody and unrecognizable everywhere. One I did recognize though...it was Elmyra, Aeris's foster mother. She was lying on her side under part of a collapsed building, killed by the impact I suppose.   
  
I also found Marlene's body. I had hoped she was alive by some miracle, but nobody could have survived Meteor. I guess it's better this way...she's with her father, Barrett. Why had I come here in the first place? The people in Bone Village had told me that it was all destroyed! So why had I come here just to cause myself more sorrow and depression? What was I expecting to find here? I knew everyone would be dead...but there was always that little bit of hope for survivors...now crushed, of course.  
  
But something else made me come here...  
  
"I knew I'd find you here." A strangely familiar voice echoed behind me.  
  
I spun and saw him standing with the sun behind him, his dark silhouette only too recognizable. I instinctively reached for my sword strapped to my back, but I forgot that it wasn't there.   
  
"Sephiroth!" I hissed, not believing my own words. "But...but I killed you!" I trembled.   
  
"Haha, I am an undying force, Cloud," he sneered, stepping closer.   
  
This seemed more like a nightmare than reality. He was dead though...I ...I killed him!  
  
"No...you're not real," I whispered.   
  
"Oh I'm very much real, my friend. After you so horribly scarred me with your wretched limit break, I am still alive. And I've come back for you, puppet," he sounded amused and serious at the same time.   
  
I took a step backward. "No... Tifa! Barret! Cid! Red!..." I shouted looking all around me for protection.   
  
"Your pathetic friends aren't here to help you now, Cloud. They're not here to revive you with a phoenix down if you fall. They're not here at all. In fact, where is Tifa? Gosh, is she (gasp!) DEAD!!" He let out a long cruel laugh. "Ah, you are pathetic...calling to your deceased friends for help."  
  
"How are you still alive?" I yelled to him as the clouds began to dim out the sun.   
  
"You are foolish believing you could stop me. The Black Materia still did it's work as you can see and now all your friends and anyone you've ever cared for is dead! I won!" he smiled triumphantly as rain suddenly began to pour around us.  
  
"What do you want then, if you already won!" I yelled with anger, the rage growing.  
  
His smiled faded, "I want to torture you for scarring me...I want you to beg for mercy after preventing me from my ultimate goal. I want you to suffer like you made me suffer..." he glared down at me, his voice growing more and more ominous as the rain continued pelting down.   
  
I took a step away and slipped on the wet pavement, landing on my back. I sat up and my swollen ankle began pulsating with pain after hitting the cold concrete. "Please...if you've already won, just leave me alone..." my voice trembled. I was too depressed and still grieving over my lost friends...   
  
"You want me to leave you alone!? After all the pain, frustration, angst and sorrow you've imprinted onto my soul, you want me to leave you alone!?" his voice roared as thunder cracked above him. "Oh no, Cloud, you're wrong. Redemption is mine."   
  
"Then kill me!" I shouted with all my fury, "Kill me now! Get it over with! Take my life! Let me die..." my voice broke off into sobs and I couldn't speak any longer for fear of the dreaded tears surfacing once more.  
  
A nice long silence. The rain drenched my clothing and my hair drooped down in front of my face. He was just standing there, staring at me. At any moment I was expecting his Masamune to slice through my neck expertly dividing my spinal cord in half thus ending my life. But he didn't move.   
  
"I won't let you die because that is what you want. I just want you to suffer," he lowered his eyes at me and the sound of rain against pavement was almost deafening.   
  
I suddenly collapsed on the rain-streaked ground and clutched my head, the terribly familiar feeling of takeover seeping into my mind coupled with the intense pain of a migraine. I hated, utterly despised that hopeless feeling... Past memories flooded into my thoughts when he had controlled my mind many times before. The old fear returned with these memories. The guilt of being weak...being a failure.   
  
"N... No!!" I yelled under his torture. I could barely control my own movements. And his JENOVA continued to grasp mine as he invaded my thoughts.   
  
"You are still weak, puppet," he commented pressing into my mind.   
  
I struggled endlessly while my JENOVA began to cooperate more and more with Sephiroth's dominating JENOVA. I used to be stronger before. But after everything that's happened, I no longer even had the will to live. Everyone I cared for was dead. I didn't care about anything anymore and my spirit easily gave in to be crushed by him...  
  
"Your mind is still my slave," he growled, smiling in triumph once he saw I had been completely crushed.   
  
I lay on the cold ground, shivering, out of breath from struggling against him, and hopeless. "Please..." was the last word I managed to get out before he completely trapped me.   
  
I stood, no longer under my own will and he was still smiling. "Always was weak."  
  
  
Chapter 6:  
  
((View Change- Sephiroth: First Person))  
  
He was easily under my control shortly after I found him. He looked a mess though, like he hadn't slept in days and his eyes were irritated with black circles under them. I knew he would be weak at that moment because of his sorrow over the deaths of the others. I assume they are dead or else they would have been with him.   
  
"Cloud Strife. You once were so proud carrying that huge boastful sword, delivering slash after slash of pain fueled by the anger that resided from your troubled past..." I bitterly spat at him.   
  
He dimly moved his shining Mako eyes to meet mine. Behind those eyes he was probably already crying for mercy...but now I would make the decision on whether or not his eyes would cry. His weak JENOVA is easily dominated by my strong JENOVA.   
  
"Thank you, Mother," I whispered tenderly.  
  
I must admit that he really didn't put up much of a struggle- it was a little boring since he was so easily dominated this time. I'm sure he had no hope to begin with anyway. And I probably crushed his soul. Ha...   
  
For a moment, he looked so lame and harmless, I wondered how I ever considered him a worthy opponent. His drooping blond hair, his bland facial expression, the fact that he didn't even have his weapon with him, and the way he stood most of all. No longer proud and confident. He was slouching and his eyes stared blankly at me. He looked so stupid right then and there that I almost decided to simply kill him off, end his miserable life. I really wanted to...then I remembered that he would suffer more under my control. His mind would undergo more torment if I kept him alive.  
  
I didn't have a weapon either. My beloved Masamune must still be in the north crater after this pathetic fool and his motley gang beat me. I looked over at Cloud. He was so depressed and traumatized that I was sure I could confidently control him for as long as I liked. It was he who came to me. I was simply here to survey the damage Meteor had caused and had no idea that I was going to run into my wonderful foe.  
  
"You're just a boy, Cloud, no more special than the rest of these idiots. How could I have ever once considered you dangerous?" I mocked him, knowing perfectly well that he would see and hear everything around him.  
  
"Cloud...is that you...?" I heard a distinctly familiar voice call from behind me. But...I thought she was dead. Her voice was sounding a bit faint.   
  
I turned and saw her, Tifa. Her body was rotting and decayed, flesh practically hanging off of her bone and her complexion was a pale bluish white. She was stumbling towards Cloud. I backed up a bit to get out of her way as she neared him. She was limping horribly and had her eyes fixed on Cloud, as if I wasn't even there.   
  
As she neared Cloud, I felt his mind begin struggling severely against my stubborn hold. He was screaming for control, but my mind kept a firm grip over his as Tifa neared him. She was horribly decaying...it was an awful sight.  
  
"Tifa..." I finally decided to speak. "How odd it is to see you here. I thought for sure Meteor would've killed you."  
  
She turned her rancid face to me and I cringed when I saw her skin was tight around her skeleton and her skull bones were easy to see beneath it. Her hair was an awful mess and she looked dead! "Sephiroth!" she exclaimed as if only realizing I was there once I spoke. "We...killed you!" she shook her head in confusion.  
  
"What are you doing here...alive...?" I questioned her, but she already turned back to Cloud who appeared to be standing calmly. Only I knew he was crying for control under that dull face and glazed eyes.  
  
"Cloud...What's wrong? Thank god I found you. I've missed you so much..." she began leaning on him heavily in a hug. I found this quite amusing and I wanted to release him just to see what he would say...but then I got a better idea.   
  
He stood there, motionless, a decaying Tifa hugging him and he couldn't speak a word. I smiled in anticipation of what was to come. Slowly, I watched Cloud pull back his fist and tense the muscle before punching Tifa right in the jaw, bits of her decaying flesh flew off and she fell to the earth in complete shock.  
  
"Cloud! What are you doing?" she cried out, but he advanced towards her, every ounce of his mind was sobbing for control, but I was enjoying this entertainment.  
  
"Tifa, you look horrible. What happened to you?" I smiled amusedly as my puppet stood above her.   
  
"I...was...in a crash and I thought I was dead. I remember being surrounded by warm green liquid and I had thought I was in the LifeStream...but then I woke up in the North Crater and I thought I had dreamed it all..." she looked at Cloud when she talked, like I wasn't even there.   
  
Some of her flesh was beginning to decay and fall apart and pieces of her bone could be seen. I mentally twitched as Cloud began to struggle more and more under my power, resisting now more than ever. Before, he had so much lost hope over his dead friends that he barely even struggled...but now that SHE had shown up, he suddenly regained hope and now he's grown stronger...  
  
I glared at him and watched him bring his fist up a second time to swing down at Tifa's defenseless form. His eyes narrowed as if trying to regain his control- but I was still stronger and he punched her right in the face again, her body slamming into the earth once more. This time she stood immediately, appalled at what had happened. I looked on very amused.   
  
"Cloud! What's wrong with you! It's me, Tifa!" She exclaimed, balling her fist. "What's your problem?" She threw back her arm and punched him right in the chest. I could see it hurt him, but Tifa was even more hurt. Her decaying wrist had completely snapped off and her flesh on her arm was deteriorating extremely fast.   
  
"W...what's happening to me?" she screamed and held her hands up to her face, watching them slowly crumple into dust. "C...Cloud, help me!!"  
  
I sat back watching this amusing play unfold before my very eyes. Cloud's feeble mind was desperately struggling to hold Tifa in his arms, but I just kept him standing where he was, a blank expression on his face. Ha...  
  
I almost began laughing at this strange scene, but a low rumbling sound made me stop in mid-laugh. The Planet began screaming with rage and the earth suddenly opened up before me...  
  
  
Chapter 7:  
  
((View Change-Cloud: First Person))  
  
My heart broke for the second time in the last few days as I watched her die again. I couldn't move, I couldn't speak, I couldn't rush to her side and hold her. I couldn't tell her that I loved her. I could just stand there and watch, a prisoner inside my own body, my own mind.   
  
She screamed in agony as her limbs rotted away into dust and I watched in sorrow. I felt so much guilt for being too weak to save her... The Planet seemed to scream along with her and the ground trembled like an earthquake.   
  
Without warning, the earth split in two and the green liquid of the LifeStream gushed to the surface, surrounding Tifa's now-still corpse. Sephiroth's face changed to sudden fear and he released his firm hold of me.   
  
The second he let go of my mind, I collapsed to the ground, completely out of breath and defeated. I weakly raised my head to see the LifeStream swirl around Sephiroth, rotting away his body and washing over Tifa until she was out of my sight under the green waters. Then as soon as it had happened, the LifeStream emptied back into the earth, leaving a green chasm behind.   
  
I let my head rest on the soft grass of the field, taking deep breaths, trying to sort through things in my mind to know what to make of all this. Tifa...I missed her so much. It was torture forcing me to punch her sweet face and cause her pain. I was lying on the grass, weakened from my struggle with Sephiroth, when I felt someone tap my shoulder.   
  
I groggily opened my eyes and saw a whirl of green bubbles all around me. Something pink was standing in the center...it was Aeris! Her cheerful green eyes smiled at me, and joy swept through my heart.   
  
"Aeris!" I weakly croaked, sitting up.   
  
She smiled, but as my eyes came more into focus, I realized she was translucent... only a shimmering image in the LifeStream bubbles.   
  
"Cloud." Her voice was a beautiful melody I had forgotten long ago. "I'm sorry."  
  
"Why...?" I barely managed to say.   
  
"I am just righting what was wronged. Jenova manipulated the LifeStream into returning Sephiroth into his body, which was something that should not have been able to happen... Tifa's soul got caught up in the reanimation of Sephiroth and her body was also reanimated on the north crater..." Aeris paused to sigh and continued. "But her body wasn't fully operational since the Jenova was only focused on Sephiroth... the caused her to decay prematurely because her body was already dead...it was her soul that was alive within her... But we, that is, I've placed both of their souls back into the LifeStream where they belong. But I'm so sorry, Cloud." Her voice echoed with deep emotion.   
  
"Aeris, please don't leave me!" I called to her.   
  
"You are merely seeing my reflection in the LifeStream... I cannot stay. I wanted to apologize to you for letting such a horrible thing occur and cause you so much more pain. ...Cloud..." She gave me a long sad smile and then her image shimmered away.   
  
"Wait!" I called. "Please! Tell Tifa I love her!!" But she was already gone, and the crack in the earth resealed itself instantly after she left.   
  
I stared at the ground for a moment, pain and sorrow hitting me worse than before. I felt a horrible ache in my chest that rippled with sadness. I was sure my heart was broken.   
  
I lay back on the grass, the sun now shining through the rain high above me. And I couldn't stop the tears. I let them flow; I couldn't hold them in any longer. I cried for all the pain in my heart. I cried for my lost friends. I cried for myself. I cried and sobbed until my face was drowned in tears and the ground was soaked with my sorrow.  
  
The rain continued on around me as I let loose my soul. All the years of refusing to cry, all the times I've kept the pain in, now I was letting it all out. I cried until my eyes were sore and my mouth was dry and until there was nothing left to cry. But I continued lying on the grass, my head hurt from all the tears. I didn't want to move. I didn't care.  
  
The rain eventually stopped and the sun eventually set and I closed my eyes, not caring about anything in the world. Could I have helped Tifa if Sephiroth hadn't been there? I could've prevented her death if I was just a little stronger. Just a little better.   
  
I prayed for death until the morning, but I realized I wouldn't die anytime soon because of the JENOVA I carried. I picked myself off the shattered ground of the dead field. Midgar was gone, Kalm was gone, why was I still here? I began walking away from the depressing ruins- away from the sealed crack from the LifeStream- away from bad memories. I didn't care where I ended up, I just had to get away from there. I walked on and on, figuring I'd end up in Junon soon enough.   
  
But the pain still resided deep within me. The sorrow was always there. I could never mend my shattered soul or my broken heart.  



End file.
